Usually, stockings are manufactured on the circular stocking knitting machines by starting from the edge or cuff and ending in the toe which remains open and which must be closed later by means of sewing outside of the circular machine. In general, the knitting of each stocking on the circular machine is finished, continuously to the open toe, with a so-called unthreading, that is, with one stitch end to be dropped, preceded by a decrease or by an increase in the stitch, which forms a reference and guiding means for the stocking at the time of the closing of the toe on a sewing machine, a so-called seam cutter. In practice, each stocking, when it is finished and unloaded from the circular machine with which it was produced, is turned inside out, so that the closing seam remains on the inside of the stocking. The stocking is then picked up again to bring together the edges of its open toe and to introduce it into the sewing machine, which must perform the closing seam of the toe. The handling and the introduction of each stocking into the sewing machine is still done manually at the present time.
What is certain is that the closing of the stockings by sewing the toe outside the knitting machines involves a variety of additional operations, a considerable use of labor and therefore considerable times and work loads, which have an effect on the cost of the manufactured products by increasing it. For these reasons, a search has been made over time for a system, which permits the closing of the toe of the stockings outside the knitting machine and which, however, limits the necessary operations and minimizes the use of labor in order to cut down the relative costs.